Research on the Progress of Systematic Taxonomy in the Genus Asparagus of China

Abstract

Garden asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis L.) is a kind of nutritious and healthy vegetable with important economic value in the world. China has become the largest production country of garden asparagus in the world. But the seeds mainly depend on import, so we need to innovate breeding system and improve the international competitiveness of domestic asparagus varieties. Genetic analysis demonstrated that the genetic variation of garden asparagus was low and its heterosis was weak among cultivars. Inter-specific hybridization is an important means to utilize heterosis, but the relationship between the classical taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of the genus Asparagus is disordered, which limits the development of interspecific hybridization breeding. In this genus, thirty-one species have been found in China, which is an effective genetic resource for the utilization of heterosis among Asparagus species. In order to provide reference for the next step to clarify the phylogenetic relationship of this genus and to carry out the interspecific hybrid breeding of garden asparagus in the near future, the research progress of its classical and molecular phylogeny of this genus is reviewed in this study.